


end of the line

by LitnenStrike27



Series: IT songfics [1]
Category: IT - Stephen King
Genre: F/M, Friendship, M/M, Post-Pennywise (IT), The Losers Club (IT) Love Each Other, Traveling Wilburys - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-17
Updated: 2019-10-17
Packaged: 2020-12-20 21:28:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21063470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LitnenStrike27/pseuds/LitnenStrike27
Summary: Well it's all right, riding around in the breezeWell it's all right, if you live the life you pleaseWell it's all right, even if the sun don't shineWell it's all right, we're going to the end of the lineA look into the losers' friendship after Pennywise but before they leave Derry.





	end of the line

_ Well it's all right, riding around in the breeze _

_ Well it's all right, if you live the life you please _

_ Well it's all right, doing the best you can _

_ Well it's all right, as long as you lend a hand _

The summer of 1989 changed everything for the Loser’s Club. Their friendship was cemented and nothing would ever change it. The summers leading up until college were the best of their lives. They had each other and they swore that they would never forget.

They spent every moment they could with each other. They were each other’s biggest fans, confidants and family. 

They recovered, they thrived, they grew into the best versions of themselves.

As long as they each other they knew they would be okay.

Then they forgot.

_ You can sit around and wait for the phone to ring (end of the line) _

_ Waiting for someone to tell you everything (end of the line) _

_ Sit around and wonder what tomorrow will bring (end of the line) _

_ Maybe a diamond ring _

The highlight of Eddie’s day was when the phone would ring. He could answer it quicker than his mother could and it was almost always Richie on the other end. Asking if he wanted to hang out, telling him that they were going to the Barrens, and Eddie would run out of the house to get to his friends. Maybe he could never really escape his mother’s manipulation but he sure as hell wouldn’t let it get in the way of his friendships. 

And every so often, one of the losers would call him at night, after they all hung out, because they knew he would need the break from his mother. Whether it was Bev, telling him all about the people at her new school, or Mike telling him about a cute thing one of his animals did, Eddie appreciated it. He could listen to his friends talk for hours. 

Eddie would lay in bed each night, just waiting until the next day so he could be with his friends again. They would be best friends forever, no clown, no overbearing parents, just Eddie and his best friends.

If Eddie had any regrets it was the day before he left for college. He wasn’t going far, his mother wouldn’t let him. But Richie was leaving the state, going all the way across the country to UCLA. Richie had snuck into his room to help him pack and Eddie was eternally grateful. His mother was too much for him today. Richie had stared at him as Eddie rambled on before he pulled Eddie in and into a kiss. Eddie just stared at him, slack-jawed and wide-eyed. And then Richie had told Eddie that Eddie could come to California with him, they could be together, they would be happy. But Eddie couldn’t do it. He couldn’t leave his mother, his home, go all the way to California. His feelings didn’t matter.

But Eddie still hung out by the telephone, waiting for any of his friends to call him, but the calls became more and more infrequent and eventually he forgot.

_ Well it's all right, even if they say you're wrong _

_ Well it's all right, sometimes you gotta be strong _

_ Well it's all right, as long as you got somewhere to lay _

_ Well it's all right, everyday is judgment day _

Ever since Georgie, Pennywise, and the trauma of 1989, Bill hadn’t been sure where to go in life. He had lost everything; Georgie, his childhood and, to a certain extent, his parents. The only thing he had left was his friends. His friends, who were the stars of every story he wrote and his reason for living. And yeah, maybe his teachers always laughed at his stories and graded them harshly. They were always too dark for people, Bev said, and they scared teachers. Bill could see that, but he had to live his truth. He wrote and wrote and wrote, despite his failing English grades.

And that wasn’t the worst part of school. Maybe Bowers and his friends were gone, but the school had no shortage of bullies. As the leader, Bill had to stand up for his friends. He had to protect them. He got into fights, usually lost, but everytime he landed a punch, he just imagined that clown under his fists. 

No matter what, his friends would be waiting for him. If he got into fights after school, Mike would be waiting out front in his truck, ready to drive Bill home. Or Eddie would be sitting on the steps with Richie, first aid kit in hand. They never let him down. Bill’s family may have been gone, but he was never alone. 

He barely passed high school and got into college. He also barely scraped by without being sent to the hospital by one of his bullies. But it didn’t matter, because the losers were all so proud of him and each other and the hug from them meant so much more than the hug from his parents. This was it, this was his family. And if there was always a ragtag group of friends in Bill’s stories then nobody brought it up. But they all knew. 

He got published right after college. He was planning on dedicating his first book to the losers but when the time came, he couldn’t seem to remember. 

_ Maybe somewhere down the road aways (end of the line) _

_ You'll think of me, wonder where I am these days (end of the line) _

_ Maybe somewhere down the road when somebody plays (end of the line) _

_ Purple haze _

Humor and rock n’ roll had always been a large part of Richie’s identity. From when he was a kid and his father introduced him to rock to when he got older and started to use humor as a coping mechanism. He had no idea what he was going to do with his life; music and humor were both very unstable fields, his parents reminded him. He needed a backup plan. But he had unconditional support in the form of his best friends. They didn’t always laugh at his jokes, but when they did he knew that he had something. As long as he could make his friends happy, he was happy. 

Eddie always told him he should go into comedy. It may have been sarcastic sometimes, but not always. And Eddie’s opinion mattered more than anybody else’s. Richie knew that Eddie would always be a fan. So Richie pursued music, found out he was shit, then moved into comedy. He did stand-up even in high school, his best friends always in the front rows. 

Richie’s other love was music. Rock n roll, to be exact. Only Mike and Bill properly appreciated it with him, but that didn’t stop him from bringing a radio to their hangouts and popping in a CD. His favorite band was always changing and his room was full of CDs. He had even burned a mixtape for each of the losers, full of song recommendations that he thought they would like. Or a little something they could use to remember him.

Jimi Hendrix was the only artist to make it onto all of the mixtapes. Richie and Mike could sit for hours and listen to him and Richie had multiple posters. Listening to Jimi Hendrix was what gave Richie the nerve to kiss Eddie before Eddie went off to college.

And whenever  _ Purple Haze  _ came on in college, Richie got a weird feeling in his gut. He didn’t know why. He felt like he may have been forgetting something. Something important. 

_ Well it's all right, even when push comes to shove _

_ Well it's all right, if you got someone to love _

_ Well it's all right, everything'll work out fine _

_ Well it's all right, we're going to the end of the line _

The library had always been Ben’s safe place. In fact, he hadn’t even seen most of Derry until he met the losers. Then he was everywhere, the pharmacy, the Quarry, the Barrens, and finally the Clubhouse. The one he built. The one that finally made him think about becoming an architect. At first it had been scary, but when he was surrounded by his friends he felt braver than he ever had before. 

He loved all his friends, but he loved Bev so much it almost hurt sometimes. He accepted that nothing would happen, even though Bev was aware of his feelings. She needed to be with herself and she lived far away. But that yearbook page kept him going when he felt at his loneliest. It was few and far between, with his six new friends, but sometimes, late at night, he was still that fat little boy that nobody wanted to be friends with.

Ben left one summer for a month to go to an architecture camp. It was worth it, but he hated being away from his friends. He hated coming back and having missed Richie’s growth spurt, Bev’s weekly visits and Bill’s new short story. He got caught up, sure, but he tried to never miss a summer ever again. Because when he was with his friends, he felt like the best version of himself. He was happy, funny, smart and kind. He was all of these things without the losers, but not to the same extent. 

Ben was heartbroken when he found out they were all going to different colleges. They had avoided talking about it and Ben knew that this was probably coming, but all of them would be in different states. This wasn’t like Bev living in a different city, not at all. They would have to drive hours to see each other. The day Bill left, they had all gathered in the Barrens. Bev had clutched Ben’s hand and Ben gave it a squeeze, happy to be providing a little bit of comfort for her. He promised himself he would never forget this moment and the person he was.

But somewhere between the situps and the meetings and the buildings, he did.

_ Don't have to be ashamed of the car I drive (end of the line) _

_ I'm just glad to be here, happy to be alive (end of the line) _

_ It don't matter if you're by my side (end of the line) _

_ I'm satisfied _

Her aunt’s rundown car barely got her from Bangor to Derry in one piece, but Beverly didn’t mind. As long as she could get to Derry to see her boys, everything would be okay. As the self-proclaimed best driver of the group, she was the one to take everybody from place to place once she got her license. All the losers frequented her car in the summer, leaving their own mark. She had Ben and Richie’s favorite CDs, hand wipes from Eddie, a sticker that Bill stuck on the window that would never quite scrap off, Mike’s handwritten directions to his house shoved into the glove department, even though she knew how to get there, and a necklace with a bird on it from Stan that hung on the rearview mirror.

Bev was never happier than she was in Derry. She was never obligated to visit her father, not after going to live with her aunt, and there was no demon clown trying to eat her. She was more herself than she ever was when she was at the Quarry, or the Barrens, or the Clubhouse with her best friends.

She would never admit this to anybody, but Ben was her favorite. He was sweet, he was kind and Bev never got sick of him.They hung out more than Bev hung out with any of the others and he was always the first one she picked up. This was also so he could get first dibs on the music and Richie wouldn’t bully them into listening to his favorite song of the week on repeat. And even when Bev had to go back to Bangor, she took her favorite polaroid of her and Ben with. She brought Ben wherever she went.

Bev’s new life was perfect. She got to escape her father, Pennywise, the horrible Derry school. She could visit her friends whenever she needed to. She was free and she was happier and healthier than she had ever been. 

And when she first left for college, she didn’t forget about Ben. Or her losers. She remembered them up until her sophomore year, when she lost the polaroid and, with it, her memories of her boys.

_ Well it's all right, even if you're old and grey _

_ Well it's all right, you still got something to say _

_ Well it's all right, remember to live and let live _

_ Well it's all right, the best you can do is forgive _

Growing older had never scared Stan. In fact, he was almost excited for it. He would be independent and free. The only thing that scared Stan was growing apart from his friends. It felt inevitable. They were all going in different directions, Stan included, and childhood trauma might not be enough to hold them all together anymore. And Stan needed his friends.

His friends gave him his voice. Bill may had been the leader, but Stan was one of the best at giving inspiring speeches. And as much as he hated to admit it, they were influenced by all of his friends. Even Richie. Stan talked more than he ever did when he was with the losers. He was always being described as “quiet” and “shy” but he wasn’t afraid to talk around his friends. In fact, he found himself unable to shut up sometimes.

And he used his voice to take care of his friends. He scolded them, but it was always in their best interest. Taking care of his friends was very important to Stan. Especially after the summer of 1989 when he almost lost all of them. He promised himself he would never lose them again.

As much as Stan wanted to remember every part of his time with his friends, he didn’t want to remember that clown or his near death. But the good memories were entangled in the old ones and Stan spent so much time thinking about that summer that he could never really shake the image of that lady in the painting coming to life and looming over him. He knew he should have gone to therapy right after that summer, but he couldn’t bring it up to his parents without explaining what had happened. And high school started to end and all Stan wanted was a safe, stable life. 

So he got a job as an accountant, married the woman he fell in love with, forgot all of his friends, remembered all of his friends, and knew what he had to do.

_ Well it's all right, riding around in the breeze _

_ Well it's all right, if you live the life you please _

_ Well it's all right, even if the sun don't shine _

_ Well it's all right, we're going to the end of the line _

It seemed almost ironic to Mike. He was the last one to join the Losers Club, but he ended up being the one to bring them all together. The Glue. Whenever the others fought, Mike was the one to step in and diffuse the situation. He didn’t mind; the arguments were never that serious. And Mike was just happy to be part of something so great. Despite Pennywise, the racism of Derry, the violent bullies, Mike was surrounded by positivity. 

He had always wanted to go to Florida. Sunny weather, beaches, paradise. But he couldn’t. He realized pretty quickly that the other losers would forget everything if they stayed away. So Mike had to stay and carry the burden. It was okay with him though; his friends were thriving. Mike could see both the teenage version of his friends and the adult versions of his friends and he knew that they didn’t have that same privilege. So it all evened out, in Mike’s eyes.

Some of the days were worse than others, so Mike would close his eyes and transport himself back to the days before college. Riding his bike with Bill, showing Bev and Ben how to feed the animals on his farm, listening to music with Richie, talking on the phone for hours with Eddie and sitting with Stan while they did homework. He missed companionship and, yeah, he had friends, but he never had friends like the losers. So when he had to investigate the claims of a grief-stricken parent or sat in the empty library by himself for hours on end, he would go back up to his room and look at a picture of his old friends, closing his eyes and letting the memories wash over him. 

He never got to forget, and that was both a blessing and a curse. He could look outside and see himself and his friends riding down the street on their bikes, screaming at each other and laughing. He could also look outside and see that goddamn clown, his parents’ charred hands, the tears on his friends’ faces. He remembered everything.

So when he called the losers 27 years later, he knew they would come. Because he knew them better than they knew themselves. 

And they picked off right where they started. Or as close to it as they could, without Stan and without all the memories clicking into place. 

Nothing was quite right when the losers weren’t together, but from then on they always would be. They would be at each other’s sides, right to the end of the line. 

**Author's Note:**

> I love the Traveling Wilburys and the Losers Club so here we are.


End file.
